The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of a recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. I’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely under-heard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.
Pop music influence is a strange silt carried forward by the flow of time.
Songs and albums loom large, casting distinctive shadows in their day, but another day comes. Then another. Before long, their distinguishing features and distinct borders are worn, weathered and eroded. Survivorship bias ensures that the most disposable music is swept to obscurity while we remember the truly epoch-defining triumphs as a useful shorthand for a time, place or sound. However, these also lose stature as their brilliance is mined and time sands transgressive edges into a grainy suspension borne ceaselessly forward.
The murky blend eventually reaches the shores of the present, where young creatives may find fertile terrain. Since the new land is made up of disparate elements united only vaguely by origins predating the present day, artists can draw from an odd, heterogeneous blend of influences. Nirvana, Van Halen and the Zombies are from entirely separate geologic eras with enormous differences, but if a band says they’re inspired by classic rock, they could earnestly mean any or all of those bands.1 Even seemingly niche subgenres flatten out on a long enough timeline. Despite differences in time, place and level of acclaim, all-time classics from the Cure, relatively recent hits from Garbage and little-remembered singles from Kill Hannah2 shared space as staples of alternative rock radio in the mid-aughts. With time reducing steadily toward the simplest common denominator, a newer band influenced by the nebulous concept of alt-rock could wind up with traces of every member of that oddball trio in their DNA.
That’s less of a hypothetical and more of a description of NewDad’s second album, Altar.
The Irish trio’s new LP is a slightly muted, barely sleeker take on the sound established by their debut album, Madra.3 It’s frontloaded with dark tones, sticky melodies and scratchy textures that recall all manner of hummable gloom that used to reside to the left of the dial without being totally beholden to any particular forebear. It’s an enjoyable album that knows how to wring pleasure out of a fairly dour aural color palette.
This is especially true of the album’s stronger first half. That’s the province of the excellent sweet and sour combo of “Pretty” and “Roobosh” as well as standouts “Other Side” and “Heavyweight.” “Other Side,” Altar’s Side one, track one, is a classic bit of soft-then-heavy misdirection. It begins with bright, delicate tones and verses that highlight the ethereal quality of Julie Dawson’s voice. At the song’s halfway point, NewDad kills the lights, brings in some organ-like drone, and pairs it with a crunchy riff, all while finding a way to make some bleak poetry sound sing-song catchy.4 It’s a level of theatricality that Altar never equals again. The relatively straightforward loud-quiet-loud spooky swoon of “Heavyweight” is an appealing chaser. “Pretty” and “Roboosh” were both tapped as pre-release singles, a canny choice since they’re among the album’s strongest songs and show the NewDad’s range. “Pretty” is built around a chiming riff that leaves plenty of space for woozy kerrangs and sparkly background flourishes. It features an insanely catchy vocal melody that’s surprisingly subdued despite intensely lovelorn lyrics. It’s a slight, charming song totally worthy of its title. “Roboosh” is the harder, harsher counterbalance. It’s all angular plinking, pulsing electric noise and yowls of the word “hey” that would make Black Francis happy. The surface-level simmering never erupts into an all-consuming blaze, which is a pity, because it seems like NewDad could make a righteous racket, but it’s an attractively bad vibe in song form.
Altar peters out after its strong opening. NewDad consistently tries new things, but most of it doesn’t land in a way that’s decidedly more forgettable than bad. “Everything I Wanted” exits with some enjoyably bouncy guitar, but before that it’s a relatively anodyne four minutes that flirts with ballad territory. “Misery” pairs abrasive blasts of guitar with stretches of moody musings in a way that’s theoretically interesting but is disjointed and not especially fun in practice. “Entertainer” takes an opposite tack, staking out a spot as the album’s most upbeat song through a blend of multi-track vocals, acoustic strumming, handclap percussion, bright power chords and string accents. It might be a smidge too busy for its own good, but it’s still handily a highlight among its back-half brethren. “Something’s Broken” is another worthwhile cut and closes the album on a somewhat optimistic note. Its title is only one half of a couplet repeated throughout the track, “Something’s broken/ Here’s me hoping,” and there is some palpable warmth in the squiggly guitar and burbling synth that wrap up the song.
It’s a pleasant enough ending, and it means the number of hits on Altar handily exceeds the number of misses. While the album isn’t the world-beater it seems to be after four songs, Altar is a more than serviceable confluence of moody rock influences and well worth a listen. It’s a mild success with many fathers and one NewDad.
About the writer
Ben Hohenstatt
Ben Hohenstatt is an Alaska-based dog owner who moonlights as a music writer and photographer.
For more information, consult your local library or with parental permission visit his website.
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The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
The Sounding Board
A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.
Department of
Conversation
What Did We Watch?
The Ring – this ranked surprisingly high on the Screen Drafts “00s Horror” list and after deciding to skip the usual Monday night cinema trip due to feeling under the weather I figured I’d throw it on and see if their praise was justified. Well, I had a pretty good spooky time but I definitely wouldn’t put it on my best of the decade list. Naomi Watts is a strong lead as usual and I liked the kid’s performance but Martin Henderson is extremely bland (and looks like the human personification of 2002) and I didn’t think the finale packed as much of a scary punch as the original even if some of the earlier mystery-investigation stuff is a decent way to Hollywood-ise the story.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, “You Got to Have Luck” – really enjoyed the performances here, especially young John Cassavetes as the charismatic convict, but the twist didn’t really work for me.
I can’t be objective about The Ring, since anything I’ve loved since the seventh grade is grandfathered into my life. One of my favorite theater experiences: the ending was followed by stunned silence as everyone processes the implication–wait, we all watched the tape–and then some guy in the background said, “HOLY SHIT,” and the whole crowd broke out in tension-relieving laughter.
Young Cassavetes is so electric in that episode. Of all the criminals we’ve had to this point on AHP, I think he’s the one who feels the most dangerous.
Ringu’s video (and especially the motion of the ghost) is scarier but The Ring’s structure really works for me, the twist was one of the biggest “oh SHIT” moments I’ve had with a movie. And I think this has a lot of dark overlap with another movie about the tapes a young woman leaves behind: https://www.the-solute.com/millers-double-features-girls-on-film/
The Lowdown, “Pilot”
Good stuff. Entertaining Ethan Hawke performance–pitched somewhere between the classic FX archetypes of “scrappy problem-solver” (Terriers) and “asshole in a hat” (Justified)–and a very strong supporting cast. This already feels like a world. The mystery is promising, but I’d also just watch a hangout show about Lee Raybon scrounging around trying to pay his bills with stolen artwork.
The X-Files, “Pusher” and “Teso Dos Bichos”
“Pusher” is our second Vince Gilligan-penned episode, and it’s incredible. One of the best storytelling moves is to look at the conventional beginning and then start at least one complication past that; a more standard episode would be “so there’s this guy, and he can make people do things,” but “Pusher,” well, pushes further. There’s this guy, and he can make people do things, and he’s dying, so he’s trying to force a final explosive confrontation that will let him go out with a bang. It instantly adds a rational level of unpredictability–it’s not that anything can happen (the kiss of death for narrative), it’s that Modell’s relative indifference to putting himself in danger makes him take some wild risks to achieve his goal–and cool procedural details like tracking him to a hospital. The Mulder-Scully relationship is also lovely in this episode, with some warm bits of intimacy that enhance the climatic scene where a “pushed” Mulder’s doing everything he can to not kill Scully and Scully is willing to sit there and put her life in danger to try to save Mulder’s life too (before doing some great problem-solving).
This poor FBI agent being forced to self-immolate is harrowing, and I like that it subtly establishes more about Modell’s powers: the level of resistance the person would feel matters, so it clearly takes more out of him to force a man to commit an agonizing suicide than it does to make a guard wave him through. Again, works very well with setting up the climax, where we also see Mulder doing everything he can to resist–it implicitly situates him shooting Scully as on par with him setting himself on fire, which rings completely true.
“Teso Dos Bichos,” on the other hand, is a slog. I guess I’m glad we got the chance to watch two episodes last night, because if we’d only had time for one episode later, and it was this one, how sad would that be? Scully seems wildly out of character for parts of this. Anyway, don’t rob graves.
I’ve been following THE LOWDOWN and it manages to reward my patience.
Well, I was hooked on The Lowdown once I heard the J.J. Cale song. The music, reminding us of the diversity of Tulsa culture, is fantastic. The father-daughter relationship and emphasis on historical context(s) — I can see the 1921 massacre lurking in the distance — do appear to be a feature of political narratives these days.
It does make for remarkably good paired viewing with One Battle After Another.
Ha, I have never thought of this as “Pusher,” much like Baba O’Reilly is Teenage Wasteland this episode is “Cerulean Blue.”
Jigoku (1960), Titus Andronicus for 1960’s Japan. A pummeling nightmare and study of sin and corruption, often shrouded in darkness, contrasting colors, and later plenty of gore and wild visuals. Even before the literal descent into hell, there’s plenty of moral degradation to go around here, and Tamura’s semi-demonic presence – plus the white and red costuming, angels and devils in many shots – brings a supernatural element to things, as if karma has a score to settle with these murderous people. Very good, messy movie streaming on Criterion.
Treehouse of Horror IV – This is an especially scary one compared to any other specials in my mind, with some fun animation and voiceover work in Marge’s vampire laugh and the big “Hi-dilly ho, BART!” twist. “Well, I do have a life outside the house, you know.”
Hell yeah Jigoku! The complete inverse of The Good Place, I think it’s great. Also was secretly remade earlier this year by Kiyoshi Kurosawa!
Excellent! Ha, this is a good comparison, Tamura is less hiding in plain sight like Michael is and more inviting questions about what he is.
The Good Place believes people are flawed but able to improve, Jigoku says nope, we’re all going to hell. And crucially it SHOWS hell — this was something understandable but increasingly annoying about The Good Place, how it would joke about The Bad Place’s torment in a goofy way. No, this place is awful! I think this ultimately leads to the show re-creating hell, which perhaps puts it in line with Jigoku after all — the switch from the sin-soaked and miserable earthly plane to the unceasing moment of agony is real but not exactly a huge step down the line, the people have made their hell on earth. Wonderful stuff!
THE KILLER has been Mandela-ed into my mind as a precursor to the postmodern 90s crime cinema associated with Tarantino. Based on my recent deep dive into 70s films, it really strikes me as part of an 80s trend of maximalizing classic film genres, which minimalizes historical and narrative revisionism and pushes aesthetic excess in revisiting traditional themes and relationships. Basically, it’s a Hong Kong equivalent of MAD MAX II. What is particularly interesting how effectively it translates the Melville-ian minimalist reflection on codes and alienation into an unabashed action spectacle without feeling forced, in part because the melodramatic flourishes are so technically controlled that they come naturally to the material. I haven’t seen it in about 20 years and it still holds up. For this screening I introduced it to my 90 year old mother-in-law and she absolutely adored it.
“how effectively it translates the Melville-ian minimalist reflection on codes and alienation into an unabashed action spectacle without feeling forced, in part because the melodramatic flourishes are so technically controlled that they come naturally to the material” – very well said. The Dudes Rock aspect of this is off the charts and that comes around very hard at the end right back into Melville-ish ruthless fidelity to action and consequence.
The Kids In The Hall, Season Four, Episode Six
“This spring, which is still my favourite month, despite the fact that I can’t wear yellow–”
“Big bat.”
“I’m an axe murderer, so I do a lot of work inside.”
“Bread was white, and milk was homo.”
“I still believe – call me square, but I still believe that tangerines are just for Christmas.”
“Uh-oh. First fight.”
“Axe murderer kills honeymooners.”
“Get your hands off my wife, you bastard!”
What Did We Listen To?
1001 Albums, etc. – getting started on the 1980s!
Adam and the Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier: surprisingly inventive, their sound is a little gimmicky I guess but there are some big swings here that I enjoyed.
Dexys Midnight Runners – Searching for the Young Soul Rebels: only really knew the big singles by these but thought this was a great listen, really excellent use of horns and a rich sound. Kevin Rowland’s yelpy vocal takes a little while to get into but this ended up being a really pleasant surprise that I will return to.
AC/DC – Back in Black: they do one thing, they do it well, it’s not really MY thing but I’ve got to respect the effort and the riffs.
The Cramps – Songs the Lord Taught Us: they do one thing, they do it… moderately well. I think I’m happy with enjoying these as an occasional singles band as I do enjoy their sound in small doses but a full album led to diminishing returns.
Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables: thought I’d heard this before but turns out I had the “Give Me Convenience…” compilation in my youth rather than this album. Very solid punk band and some of their pointed lyrical themes feel extremely relevant today, annoyingly.
Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel (aka Melt): first track here is really cool but then it reverts to Peter Gabriel type, I basically just don’t like his voice very much and that keeps me from getting into the album despite some cool production / arrangement stuff.
The Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight: excellent stuff, heard this one before and very much enjoyed revisiting – an excellent blend of jangly powerpop and lightly psychedelic elements. “Queen of Eyes” remains an absolute banger.
The Cure – Seventeen Seconds: never really dug into the Cure despite liking a lot of the singles. Liked the general vibe of this early album although some tracks felt a bit filler-y.
—
Screen Drafts, “00s Horror” – an interesting list, although not a favourite episode. Much as I’d like to support when British guests appear on the show I found Clark Collis to be a little irritating here. Still a fun listen but didn’t live up to the very high standards of the 70s Comedy draft last week, and other than my viewing above I don’t feel particularly moved to check out anything new as a result of listening.
Songs The Lord Taught Us is a Crockford house staple! My bandmate wanted to cover “I Wanna Destroy You” but I reasoned that everyone had already done it.
Yeah, Collis is a little longwinded and focuses too much on anecdotes and trivia for my taste; a pinch of that is interesting, but I’d rather hear more about the movies as movies.
UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT, to use Lauren’s term, is an album grandfathered into my life from my college radio days. Its mixture of pop melody with jangling psychodelia is totally my thing, and not just nostalgia.
I like that Gabriel album too, although maybe if introduced to it later my fondness for it might be muted.
Anti-Gabriel and pro-Dead Kennedys, excellent! Convenience or Death is a great compilation although uneven as an album with shared sensibility among the songs, what it and Fresh Fruit both have is a great sick sense of humor that works in concert with and balances the politics. The band lost something when they stopped writing tasteless trash like “Funland At The Beach.” But on the other hand, the pitch-black joke of “Holiday in Cambodia” is timeless.
Underwater Moonlight is one of my all-time favorites, and the expanded edition is even better – the original release was ten tracks, I think, and the expanded adds nine that were cut but all were good enough to have been on the album.
Pulp’s new album is still good, especially the party-ready opener “Spike Island.” I needed to stay awake at work yesterday so I laughed along to Patton Oswalt’s Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time, though I don’t think it’s as good as his other specials. Next up in my musical listens is probably Shucked and Anything Goes, but I’m avoiding the Lea Michele Funny Girl sitting in my Suggested from Tidal like it’s the fucking plague.
Just replying to throw more love at “Spike Island.”
Cocker sounds audibly happy to be singing with the band.
Damn, I really like Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time. The casino story is one of the funniest fucking things I’ve ever heard.
Well shit, I don’t think that bit is on the live album and I don’t know why, it would’ve definitely raised it up on relistening at least a few points. I caught that on YouTube of course years ago and Patton’s impression of these drunk idiots is always really funny. “I – I was in Ratatouille!”
Hmm, it’s definitely on the album on Spotify (“Sellout”). Not sure what version you got that cut it. I think even the live performance that IIRC Comedy Central aired cuts some of it too.
Deftones
Back when Ohms (2020) came out, I listened to every Deftones album in reverse chronological order. I’ve been hearing a lot of Private Music since it came out this Summer, and I’m seeing them live in three weeks, so it’s time to do it again. This time in actual chronological order.
Five years ago, I’d actually never heard Adrenaline and Around the Fur in full, and I haven’t done it again since. Back then, I thought I’d saved the worst for last with those two first albums. Let’s see if I like them better this time.
Adrenaline
I do like it better than last time. Suffers from some of the same issues other new, alternative metal from the 90’s does, such as a reliance of riffing and impact, poor recording in places and lack of variety and dynamics; but the middle section of “Lifter”, “Root” and “7 Words” is super strong. And the near-instrumental “Fist” is as great as any other of their album closers. Probably the most critical flaw is that Chino couldn’t quite figure out his vocal hooks yet, but he’d get there. Oh man, would he get there.
Around the Fur
Feels like a peek into an alternate universe where Deftones never evolved past aggro music mechanics, as it mostly just iterates on the songwriting from Adrenaline. “My Own Summer (Shove It)” is one of the best examples of that style, and one of their first tracks where the vocals and guitars augment each other rather than scream over themselves, which is what most of the album does, especially the first half. “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” also breaks with this and signals the more passionate emoting that will become a hallmark of the rest of their career. It’s still one of their best tracks, and one that does more with less, especially in the chorus. And the album closes strong with “Headup” and “MX”, two hook-heavy bangers (three if you count the hidden track “Damone”), in an album that often struggled to find them. On the whole, an album that sticks to the band’s original sound while offering glimpses of the more interesting, varied band they would become just three years and one additional member later. Up next, White Pony.
Madi Diaz – Fatal Optimist
Diaz wields her voice and acoustic guitar like a scalpel to dissect complicated feelings and messy people — including herself– in simple, stark terms. It’s an album prone to redundancy but worth spending time with.
Rocket – R is for Rocket
Was nearly this week’s Sounding Board material, but I had less to say about it than the NewDad album. It’s a solid B- alternative rock album.
Gilla Band- Most Normal
Daniel Fox of this band produced both of Sprints albums and is sort of an unofficial fifth member of that band. This is loud, odd, confrontationally bizarre art noise, and it explains the buzzy, scuzzy film that congeals over some Sprints songs. Not a full endorsement but if that description sounded appealing to you, you’ll probably love it.
Hop Along -Painted Shut and Hop Along- Bark Your Head Off, Dog
I had a couple long drives in search of some sun-soaked highway for a photo project, so I fired up a couple of old favorites. I prefer the rockier texture of Painted Shut, which remains one of my favorite albums of the ’10s, but Bark Your Head Off, Dog, is an interesting pop-tinted ellipses on a discography that showcases an evolving sound and features zero bad LPs.
Saw Gila Band a year or so back and they were loud and scuzzy as fuck (complimentary), I need to check this out.
Good band live, I saw them and another loud post-punk group, Preoccupations, when they both had problematic names.
Rocket has a couple of solid singles I heard, so that probably sounds about right. “Take Your Aim” in particular I’m pretty familiar with at this point, and it definitely could slot in along some 90s alt-rock.
Year of the Month update!
Here’s a primer on some of the movies, albums, books and TV we’ll be covering for 1973 in October!
TBD: Patrick Mio Llaguno – The Long Goodbye
Oct. 14th: Bridgett Taylor: Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road
Oct. 15th: Lauren James: Working
Oct. 16th: John Bruni: Shotgun Willie/Sweet Revenge
Oct. 22nd: Lauren James: The Wicker Man
Oct. 26th: Ben Hohenstatt: Mind Games
Oct. 29th: Lauren James: Don’t Look Now
And this November, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al from 2018!
Nov. 10th: Bridgett Taylor: Aquaman
Nov. 12th: Ben Hohenstatt: Bark Your Head Off, Dog
Kill Hannah was a great band in their indie 90’s days. Somehow I ended up on their AOL mailing list when they released their first EP. The major label version of that band in the 2000’s bore little resemblance to the post-art school days.